Teacher Beaten for Discussing Desecration of Jewish Cemetery

A teacher was beaten up by intruders in her home Monday, after receiving two anonymous telephone calls denouncing her for discussing the desecration of the Jewish cemetery in Carpentras in her class.

Christiane Guiard, 44, who teaches history and geography to 15-year-olds in Royan, near the western coast of France, was beaten and threatened for having “introduced politics in school.”

On Monday morning, two masked men broke into her apartment, badly beat her and called her a “dirty Jew” and “dirty Arab.”

All of France was aroused by the brutal violation of the cemetery in Carpentras, a town of less than 30,0000 in southern France.

During the night of May 10, vandals overturned 34 headstones and exhumed and mutilated the corpse of a recently buried 81-year-old man.

Prime Minister Michel Rocard announced in Parliament on Wednesday that 60 additional investigators have been assigned to the case.

The assault on the cemetery has spurred French Jews to inquire about immigration to Israel. The Jewish Agency branch here said it had received more than 2,000 inquiries in the past five days, compared to the normal 50 a week.